Alluding to the Greek god of many forms, Proteus, the above excerpt describes the protean self (Lifton, 1993). In essence, the ever-growing dynamism of the world today requires individuals to be increasingly fluid and adaptable. This is particularly true of the rapidly changing career landscape, prompting Hall (1986, 1996, 2002;
Hall & Mirvis, 1995) to write of the ‘‘protean worker.’’ More specifically, Hall and his colleagues contend that to be successful within todays work environment, workers need to be highly adaptable, and manage multiple identities (Hall, 1976,
2002; Hall & Mirvis, 1995; Mirvis & Hall, 1994).
Traditionally, careers occurred within the context of a single or limited number of organizations (i.e., the bounded or organizational career)—as was the case under the old, paternalistic employer–employee contract (e.g., Hall & Mirvis, 1995). Currently, however, people more commonly experience largely self-managed, boundaryless careers comprised of many positions with multiple organizations and even industries
(Arthur, 1994; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Hall, 2002; Leana & Rousseau, 2000; Mirvis
& Hall, 1994). Due to the increased pace of change, the boundaries between jobs, between organizations, and between life roles (e.g., parent, leisure) are becoming blurred, and individuals are required to negotiate a far greater number and variety of role transitions (Ashforth, 2001). For instance, despite the record economic expansion in the United States during the 1990s, corporate decks were shuffled and reshuffled, resulting in persistent and substantial waves of job loss. The extreme career and psychological impact on displaced workers highlighted the need for effective coping (Kinicki, Prussia, & McKee-Ryan, 2000). Further, the persistent restructuring precipitated challenges for survivors as well: they had to deal with the loss of valued coworkers, the responsibilities that were shouldered by those coworkers, and threats to their own job ‘‘security’’ (cf. Kammeyer-Mueller, Liao, & Arvey, 2001).
Survival in this turbulent career environment requires workers to continually manage change—in themselves and their contexts. Thus, a persons ability and willingness to adapt is essential to career success (Hall, 2002; Pulakos, Arad, Donovan,
& Plamondon, 2000). Historically, organizational scholars characterized employee adaptation as reactive, that is, as a response to environmental change.More recently, employees have been characterized as more proactive, as initiating change. For example, numerous person-centered constructs—proactive behaviors (Crant, 2000), personal initiative (Frese & Fay, 2001), proactive personality (Bateman & Crant,
1993), taking charge (Morrison & Phelps, 1999), proactive socialization (Saks &
Ashforth, 1997), and so on—conceive of employees as active agents who initiate improvement in their work situations. Building on this theme, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the construct of employability.
We propose that an individuals employability subsumes a host of person-centered constructs that combine synergistically to help workers effectively adapt to the myriad of work-related changes occurring in todays economy. Employability is a psycho- social construct that embodies individual characteristics that foster adaptive cognition, behavior, and affect, and enhance the individual-work interface. This person- centered emphasis coincides with the major shift in responsibility for career management and development from employers to employees (e.g., Hall & Mirvis,
1995). In short, the onus is on employees 